Pranab Mukherjee, India’s finance minister, said the acquisition reflected the power of an economy that laid claim to the fifth-largest global foreign reserves: “We have money to buy gold. We have enough foreign exchange reserves.”

He contrasted India’s strength with weakness elsewhere: “Europe collapsed and North America collapsed.”

The purchase by New Delhi’s Reserve Bank from the International Monetary Fund pushed gold prices to a record $1,086.10 per troy ounce, up 2.6 per cent on the day, as traders bet that other central banks would also become buyers.~ financial times gold hits record high on india purchase